US-led coalition warplanes have pounded the Islamic State group (ISIL) in Syria after the Paris attacks, with French raids hitting ISIL stronghold Raqqa and another strike destroying dozens of oil tankers.

France said 12 of its warplanes had hit ISIL positions in Raqqa, the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital.

Meanwhile, ISIL militants have warned nations taking part in the Syrian bombing campaign that their cities will suffer the same fate as Paris, in a new video released overnight.

Speaking in Arabic and flanked by gunmen a jihadi known as "the Algerian" warned European nations that terrorists were "coming with booby traps and explosives" and issued a specific threat against Washington D.C.

In Paris, President Francois Hollande said France would "intensify" operations in Syria.

"We will continue the strikes in the weeks to come," he told an exceptional meeting of both houses of parliament.

The strikes came after ISIL claimed responsibility for the bomb and gun attacks that killed at least 129 people in Paris.

Abaaoud, who has fought along ISIL in Syria and has been on the run since police stormed a jihadist cell in eastern Belgium's Verviers in January, is believed to have financed and organised the attacks.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

French radio station RTL said authorities consider the 28-year-old “one of the most active extremists” linked to ISIL in Syria.

Abaaoud, who in July was sentenced in absentia by a Belgian court to 20 years in prison, was in contact with at least one of the Abdeslam brothers.

Brahim Abdeslam was one of the suicide attackers in Paris, and his brother Salah is being hunted by police.

Salah Abdeslam, 26, is the subject of an international arrest warrant by French police who have described him as "dangerous". Belgian media described him as "public enemy number one".

French police have meanwhile conducted 168 raids across the country, arresting 23 people and placing 104 people under house arrest.

The raids uncovered 31 weapons including a rocket launcher seized from a property in Lyon.

Special operations police move in near Toulouse. (@ladepechedumidi)

Activists and a monitoring group said the wave of strikes had shaken Raqqa and sparked panic, but the number of casualties was not yet known.

"There were at least 36 explosions overnight in Raqa city, some caused by air strikes and some by weapons and explosives detonating after being hit," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The blasts shook the entire city," he told AFP.

France's defence ministry said warplanes, including Rafale and Mirage fighters, had dropped 20 bombs on targets including a command post, a recruitment centre and arms depots south of Raqqa.

A training camp west of the city was also hit, it said.

An activist group, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), said the raids caused "panic" among civilians in Syria but that no civilians appeared to have been killed.

"IS is not allowing people to walk around and has cut off all the electricity," said RBSS activist Abu Mohammad, who is from Raqqa.

Speaking via the Internet, he said ISIL members typically take refuge in bomb shelters during strikes.

Raqqa is regularly targeted by US-led coalition aircraft, Syrian warplanes and more recently Russian air strikes which began on September 30.

Experts said France's strikes could be useful if they were based on solid information, but warned that intelligence gaps and the risks of civilian deaths have long been obstacles to targeting ISIL.

“If the French do have good intelligence on where they're targeting and they are doing it for good reason rather than to just lash out, then it could in the long term build into something useful," analyst and researcher Charlie Winter told AFP.

He said ISIL's top leadership was unlikely to be in Raqqa, and that it would seek to capitalise on any civilian casualties for propaganda purposes.

President Obama has vowed a ruthless pursuit of the group but without putting US troops on the ground.

Suspected Paris attackers:

• Salah Abdeslam, 26 - sought by police

• Mohammed Abdeslam - reportedly arrested in Belgium

• Brahim Abdeslam, 31 – took part in the Bataclan concert hall

• Omar Ismail Mostefai, 29, from near Paris - died in attack on Bataclan